Learners and Educators Attitudes Towards Mobile Learning in Higher Education: State of the Art Mostafa Al-Emran Al Buraimi University College The British University in Dubai Al-Buraimi, Oman malemran@buc.edu.om Khaled Shaalan The British University in Dubai Dubai, UAE khaled.shaalan@buid.ac.ae Abstract— In the last few years, the way we learn has been significantly changed from traditional classrooms that depend on printed papers into e-learning relying on electronic teaching material. Contemporary educational technologies attempt to facilitate the delivery of learning from instructors to students in a more flexible and comfortable way. Mobile learning (M-learning) is one of such pervasive technologies that has been evolved rapidly to deliver e-learning using personal electronic devices without posing any restrictions on time and location. Literature that sheds light on using M-learning in various institutions of learning is beginning to emerge. The work in this paper demonstrates the state of the art of the M-learning. It discusses learners’ and educators’ attitudes towards the use and adoption of M-learning. Advantages and disadvantages of M-learning were also presented. The integration and implementation of M- learning with other technological resources has been described. Factors affecting the students’ and faculty members’ attitudes towards the use of M-learning have been demonstrated. Moreover, the new trends and challenges, which are evolved while conducting this survey, are explained. Keywords—M-learning; Attitudes; Higher Education; Educational Technology. I. INTRODUCTION Mobile learning (M-learning) recently has been shifted from being a theory to a real valuable improvement supporting the learning environment. M-learning may simply be considered as the natural evolution of e-learning with more effective communication and powerful personalized mechanisms ([1], [2]) or a new platform of distance learning ([3], [4]). M- learning makes it easy for all students at different ages to study and access the learning material anytime anywhere. Modern technologies, such as M-learning, give students a convenient opportunity to learn more within shorter time frame. These features make M-learning an excellent technology for supporting learning in various universities worldwide. In general, before embarking on developing any technology, it is important to examine the end-user attitude towards the use of such technology. Attitudes toward technology help in determining strengths and weaknesses and facilitate the development of the required infrastructure. The end-users of M-learning technology are students and educators. In this study, we review the state-of-the-art of M-learning research and examine students’ and educators’ attitudes within the universities that have applied M-learning and identify various challenges and opportunities to M-learning. In addition, we have reviewed the students’ and faculty members’ attitudes towards the use of M-learning in their higher education environments, i.e. environments that have not yet implemented M-learning. This survey is structured as follows: Section 2 provides a background on M-learning technology. Section 3 demonstrates students and educators attitudes towards the adoption of M- learning in the universities where it has been applied. Section 4 presents students and educators attitudes towards the use of M-learning in the universities where it has not yet been applied. Section 5 presents some concluding remarks. II. BACKGROUND A. Educational Technologies in higher educational institutions Educational technologies aim at facilitating the learning process and enhancing its performance through the management of appropriate technological resources. Recently, there are various technologies that have been employed in higher educational institutions in order to facilitate the learning process, such as tablets, Learning Management Systems (LMS), Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs), smart boards, social media, forums, and blogs, among others. As stated in [5], education should be adapted to the emergent importance of such technologies and educational platforms need to be designed and intended for enhancing learners’ educational 907 978-1-4799-8792-4/15/$31.00 c 2015 IEEE